


Unexpected Appearances in Apartment #3A

by zinke



Series: Barnes & Noble [5]
Category: Castle
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-27
Updated: 2011-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-18 18:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/191730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>’When my daughter cancels our lunch date by text message and then doesn’t return any of my calls, I tend to worry.’ Fifth in the 'Barnes & Noble' series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Appearances in Apartment #3A

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fifth story in the ‘Barnes & Noble’ series, which all started because of the following AU ficathon prompt: _Johanna Beckett never dies_. At this point, it would be best for you to read the previous installments before diving into this one.
> 
> Thanks go, once again, to the lovely gabolange for the suggestions and advice.

Slipping off her sunglasses, Johanna Beckett steps off the elevator and makes her way down the hall to her daughter’s apartment. Once there she hesitates, staring at the tarnished brass numbers on the door as she wonders if coming here was really such a good idea.

Ultimately, her concern wins out and, taking a deep breath, she raps on the door. A few moments later, Johanna hears the sound of approaching footsteps followed by the snick of a lock being thrown.

“Mom? What are you doing here?”

Johanna gives Kate an admonishing look. “When my daughter cancels our lunch date by text message and then doesn’t return any of my calls, I tend to worry.”

Kate rolls her eyes, but the characteristic gesture is half-hearted at best. “Mom, I’m fine.”

“Somehow,” Johanna says, pulling a copy of the _Ledger_ out of her bag and holding it before her, “I doubt that very much.”

Kate stares blankly at the paper a moment, then turns and retreats back into the safety of her apartment without another word. Choosing to interpret her daughter’s silence as an invitation, Johanna follows her daughter inside.

Kate busies herself with pouring coffee into a pair of matching mugs as Johanna sets her bag and the newspaper on the kitchen counter and shrugs out of her jacket. “I turned my phone off,” Kate says, setting one of the two mugs down in front of Johanna before taking a sip from the other.

A knot of dread forms in the pit of Johanna’s stomach. “The press?”

Kate shakes her head. “I just…needed time to think.”

Moving her mug aside, Johanna folds her arms on the counter and leans in, ducking her head in an effort to catch her daughter’s eye. “It’s not like you to hide from a problem, Katie.”

“What else am I supposed to do?”

“It’s not a matter of what you’re ‘supposed’ to do. What do you _want_ to do?”

“Set fire to the _Ledger_ building,” Kate parries, the ghost of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. It disappears quickly, replaced by a melancholy frown. “I want to disappear. Erase my name and that picture from every copy of that paper and go back to being just another person out of eight million.”

Johanna bites back the platitude forming on the tip of her tongue, swallowing it down with a sip of coffee. Something in her expression must give her away, because a few seconds later Kate asks, “Isn’t this the part where you say I’ve never been ‘just another’ anybody?”

“I could, but you don’t really need me to tell you that do you?”

Picking up the newspaper, Kate stares long and hard at the grainy picture of her and Rick together outside Lincoln Center. “No.”

“What does Rick have to say about all of this?”

Kate shrugs, her eyes still glued to the page.

“Katie?”

“He thinks this is his fault.”

“Well, in a way, it is.”

Kate drops the paper to glare at her mother. “I knew what I was getting into when I called him, Mom.”

“Maybe,” Johanna replies, unfazed by her daughter’s sudden flash of irritation. “But knowing it and living it are two very different things.”

“Why aren’t you upset about this?”

“I think the better question is: why are you?”

Before her daughter can respond, there’s a knock at the door. Johanna hazards a glance at Kate, who is staring blankly into her coffee, seemingly determined to ignore whoever it is until they give up and go away. Johanna, however, has no such patience and, by the fourth round of resounding thuds, she’s set down her mug and is moving towards the door.

Her first thought once she’s opened it is that he looks nothing like him. Dressed in wrinkled chinos, t-shirt and a wash-worn flannel shirt, the scruffy-looking man standing in her daughter’s entryway looks more like a vagabond than the polished, confident man she’s seen in the magazines, dailies and dust jackets.

If the look of abject terror on his face is anything to go by, Johanna isn’t who Rick Castle was expecting to see, either.

“Mrs. Beckett. I just—” Rick casts a quick glance over her shoulder. “Kate looks just like you.” Looking down at himself, he runs his hands over the wrinkles in his shirt as if to try and smooth them, then gives her a weak smile. “Would you think better of me if I told you this was supposed to be a disguise?”

Despite the situation, Johanna feels herself smile at his quip. “Probably not.”

Rick grimaces slightly, his attention once again straying past her into the apartment beyond. “Is she here?”

Though she had been expecting it, his question still catches Johanna off-guard. Licking his lips, Rick hastily adds, “I know what you must be thinking—”

“Mr. Castle—”

“Rick.”

“Rick,” she amends, stepping aside and gesturing for him to enter. “What I’m thinking might surprise you.”

Rick glances at her warily as he steps across the threshold. “Just so we’re clear: you’re _not_ kicking me out?”

Shutting the door behind her, Johanna turns to him and shakes her head. “If Katie didn’t want you here, she would never have let me answer the door in the first place.”

She starts off down the hallway, but pauses when she doesn’t hear him following her. Looking back, she’s a bit surprised to see that the panicked expression has returned, and he’s once again looking past her searching the space for some sign of Kate.

“She’s not going to bite your head off, you know.”

The expression on Rick’s face makes it clear he’s far from convinced.

“Kate isn’t angry with you, Rick.”

“Could have fooled me,” he mutters.

Johanna gives him a pointed look. “Exactly,” she says before turning on her heel and walking down the hallway without a backwards glance.

She’s forced to smother her grin a few moments later when she hears Rick’s shoes squeak against the floorboards as he falls into step behind her. Together they round the corner to find Kate waiting, eyes still trained on the coffee mug cradled tightly in her hands. “Who was it?”

Clearing his throat, Rick steps past Johanna and into view. “Me.”

Their eyes meet, Kate’s widening in surprise as she takes in the unexpected sight of her boyfriend standing beside her mother. “What are you doing here?”

“You left without saying goodbye.”

Kate stares at Rick, her expression carefully blank. “I needed time to think,” she eventually replies, offering him the same explanation she’d given Johanna earlier.

“Any conclusions?” Rick asks quietly, regarding her with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation.

Kate shakes her head.

An awkward silence descends and, assuming her presence is the cause, Johanna decides to take her leave. “I’m going to just—”

“Wait.” Snapping out of his reverie, Rick turns to rest a hand on Johanna’s arm. “Mrs. Beckett, please. I’d like you to hear what I have to say as well.”

Both Johanna and Rick look to Kate who, after a moment’s consideration, nods her assent.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rick lifts his hand from Johanna’s arm to run his fingers over the stubbled line of his chin. “I called my lawyer this morning after you left. But it turns out suing a major newspaper isn’t as easy as they make it look on TV. So, I made a deal instead.”

Kate’s expression grows wary. “Rick—”

“No more snooping. No more following us around and no more articles. In exchange, I give them a no-holds barred exclusive interview and an excerpt from my new book before it’s released.” At Kate’s incredulous look, Rick grins and adds, “Seeing as I’ve yet to write a single word of it, I’d say we got the better end of the deal.”

Kate regards him a moment, then shakes her head. “No.” Turning on her heel, she disappears around the corner.

“No?” Rick’s brow furrows as he trails after her.

Johanna follows a second later. She makes a conscious decision to keep her distance as she enters the living room, where Kate is now standing, her attention wholly focused on Rick and eyes flashing with annoyance. “How many newspapers does this city have?”

“That depends. Are we including the _Gotham Gazette_?”

“My point,” Kate continues, seemingly unimpressed by Rick’s attempt to lighten the conversation, “is that the _Ledger_ is only one of probably hundreds of papers in New York City alone. There are going to be other stories. And you can’t make deals with all of them.”

Rick opens his mouth, no doubt to try and argue to the point, but stops short when Kate raises her hand and presses a finger to his lips. “You can’t,” she insists quietly.

“Maybe not; but that isn’t going to stop me from wanting to try.”

Kate sighs and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “That’s sweet Rick, really. But I don’t need you to protect me.”

Rick bows his head and sighs. “Just…tell me how I can fix this.”

“Rescind the deal,” Kate replies without hesitation.

The words are out of Johanna’s mouth before she can stop them. “Katie, are you sure?”

Kate nods. “Let them write whatever they want.”

Reluctantly, Rick dips his head in acknowledgement. “Okay.”

“And you need to give me some time to decide if this,” Kate picks up a copy of the _Ledger_ , “is what I want.”

“You mean if _I’m_ what you want,” Rick whispers, looking stricken.

“For better or for worse, being in the public eye is a part of who you are,” she says, handing him the paper. “As much as I wish that didn’t matter to me—”

“It does.”

Kate nods sadly. “I’m sorry.”

Rick unfolds the paper. He absently runs the pad of his thumb over the text as he stares at the grainy image of him and Kate gracing the right-hand corner of the page. “The first time my name made it into a gossip column, I was mortified. I’d bought every available copy within a three block radius of my apartment before I finally had to give up and let it go – and not just because I’d run out of cash. It wasn’t easy, but it did get better.” Rick shakes his head. “I guess what I’m trying to say is: I understand. And I’ll wait. One way or the other, for as long as it takes.”

“Okay,” Kate whispers, giving him a wobbly smile.

Rick gazes at Kate a moment longer before turning to leave. Johanna walks him to the door, reaching out to rest a staying hand on his arm as he takes hold of the doorknob. “Can I ask you something?”

Rick nods.

“Why did you ask me to stay?”

“Because if someone hurt my daughter, I’d want to know they’d be willing to do whatever it takes to make it better. And I’d want to hear it from them.” He pauses, glancing over Johanna’s shoulder to where Kate is no doubt watching them. “I’d still make the deal, you know. If she asked me to.”

“I know you would. And so does Kate. Don’t think that doesn’t count for something.”

Rick sighs. “This isn’t how this was supposed to go.” Johanna assumes he’s talking about the situation with the paper so is surprised when he continues, “I was going to take you both out to lunch someplace nice like the Gramercy Tavern or Balthazar and win you over with my witty stories and sparkling personality.”

Johanna gives him an encouraging pat on the arm. “Forget about the stories, Rick. You’re doing just fine.”

Rick swallows hard and lifts his eyes to hers. “Thank you, Mrs. Beckett.”

“Johanna,” she corrects with a smile. “And you’re welcome.”

 

*fin.*


End file.
